Open Letter to All Newspapers and Media Editors

According to the latest Tulchin poll, 58% of Californians back S.B. 562 even after hearing all the arguments against, and for good reason. If enacted, businesses will save up to 22%. Individuals will save up to 9.1%. You don’t have to take my word for it, a 2017 scientific fiscal study from the economists at UMass-Amherst have gathered all the current numbers for California and proven it with basic math.

And did I mention yet that no one will pay a premium, co-pay, or wait for a deductible to kick in? The fiscal study shows that all that are needed are two small taxes. I’m just going to quote the fiscal study verbatim:

“1) A gross receipts tax of 2.3 percent. This tax will be applied to all businesses in California. It will include an exemption for the first $2 million in receipts for all businesses. Through this exemption, firms that average up to 9 employees will have no gross receipts tax obligation. Firms with up to 19 employees will pay taxes on only about one-third of their gross revenue.

2) A sales tax of 2.3 percent. The sales tax will exempt all spending on housing, utility and food at home. To be consistent with the existing California tax code, it will also include exemptions on a broad range of service expenditures. It further includes a 2 percent income tax credit for families currently insured through MediCal, to fully offset their 2.3 percent sales tax spending.”

Now, when publications such as yours go off half-cocked and use a discredited analysis with no sources and written by a person without any economics background whatsoever who plainly used insurance company talking points, and you don’t retract your editorials after being proven wrong, you risk being lumped in with the fake news scourge that benefited the current president and his political party.

Doctors and nurses, including Senator Ed Hernandez – a doctor himself and chair of the Senate Health Committee – and the entire healthcare community, with the only exception of health insurance companies, are all for S.B. 562. It lowers their administrative costs and gives the control back to the actual care providers, not corporate bean counters.

By the way, Medicare and Medi-Cal are single-payer. Medicare has a 3% administrative overhead compared to the insurance companies’ 15% skim off our premiums. Go figure. Waivers make this easier to manage with a state program, but they are not ultimately necessary.

Of course, every other first-world nation can provide healthcare to their citizens. It’s not only a good idea, but it’s feasible and practical. The Republicans and insurance companies want to argue over the number of pages in S.B. 562 because they have no argument and think the public is stupid.

But, hey, we don’t buy full-page ads on your sites, so this will go directly into the trash or be immediately followed up with another page of insurance company lies and scare-tactics. The difference between us and them is that we are being completely honest with the public and treat them as the intelligent people they are. Now, will you?